Scattered Thoughts . . .

We had Kenzie overnight again late last week.  She came to visit so we could do some back-to-school shopping with her.  Lukey was out-of-town with a friend so Kenzie visited us alone. After some penne and meatballs for dinner, we watched "Bride Wars"...   The next morning we headed toward Williston and Burlington.  By the look on her face and her hand gesture, I think Kenzie is saying, " What are you talking about?" Kenzie likes Old Navy so that was our first stop...  Kenzie seemed to have a jumble of different faces throughout the day... And, another face... And, another face... A quick visit to Ulta to pick up a few things (not for me!) for Kenzie... And, a stop at Barnes and Noble for some books... We had a good time with Kenzie, as always.  I just noticed the socks with sandals in the above photo...  like a lunatic who just escaped from a cell somewhere...   It was fun having Kenzie around for a couple of days and we look forward to the next visit with one or

A s I mentioned in a few previous blog entries, we did a bit of shopping with Lukey and Kenzie while they were staying with us last week.  This will be the blog entry with the photos of us shopping. Liza was in the hospital giving birth to Sophia and would be tied up with Sophia for a while when they arrived home so we felt it was best to get Lukey and Kenzie some things that they will need in the coming weeks so Liza wouldn't have to do it herself. Here, below, is the usual shot of us heading up to the Burlington area... We went to Dick's mostly because Kenzie needed running shoes specifically for running and Lukey needed sneakers.  Of course, we did some looking in some other departments too and, as a result, we found some life preservers for Lukey and Kenzie.  They outgrew their old ones.   Kenzie, the jumping string bean...  this is usually a pretty good sign that she is happy... We found some running shoes for Kenzie.  It was time consuming though and we sort of had to set

Thursday night, Sheila and I were relaxing at home and our Alexa Show started flashing light and sounding a notification sound...  I told Alexa to answer the call...  Miss Mackenzie was on the other end and had to ask us something.  Gee came into the room as Mackenzie asked if she could have a sleepover at our house.  Gee excitedly answered, "Of course you can have a sleepover with us!" So, Kenzie has been with us this weekend.  Last night we had some meatballs, pasta and bread for dinner.  We watched a movie or two.  This morning I made my pastry-style French toast with a side of bacon and Gee sliced up some strawberries to add to the French toast.  It was delicious! We have a big snowstorm headed our way and had some errands to run so we had planned to immediately head out after breakfast.  Mackenzie and I were ready before Gee so I shot a few photos of her...  here is one from that bunch... One of these days, I need to do a longer modeling session with her.  She i

After our followup appointment with the surgeon on Friday, suddenly, we found ourselves with a three day holiday weekend, no plans, and a cleared schedule for a week or two as we wait on further test results.  After a few weeks of hospital visits, surgery, and bad news and even worse news it was nice to have a little breather. As you could probably imagine, under these circumstances, we both wanted to get away for a bit.  Sheila wasn't in much of a mood for socializing so a weekend for us alone was what she really wanted and needed. I think there has been too much focus on conversations of cancer and treatment over the past three weeks and Sheila needed a break... and some rest... and some sleep...  generally speaking, she needed some quiet time and a change of scenery. Friday afternoon, we searched online for a hotel room for the long holiday weekend... as we expected, we had waited too long to book a hotel room on a holiday weekend. We even talked about the option of some t

For the past two or three weeks (it seems like two or three months, actually), Sheila and I have been completely immersed in cancer stuff with little time nor energy for much else.  We've definitely eaten out significantly more often because we simply have had no time to cook on far too many days. All of our attention and all of our energy has been actively and acutely focused on doing everything possible to get beyond Sheila's cancer.  Yesterday morning, Sheila was a bit too emotional for driving to work nevermind working through the day so, instead of driving to work while trying to see through a wall of tears, she called work and arranged to have the day off to regroup. The dreaded thought and knowledge of lymph involvement and metastatizing of her breast cancer was a bit too overwhelming so we called a timeout from everything and we spent the day together doing "normal" things for a change. I took Sheila out to lunch and, for the most part, we talked abou

Our schedule is pretty full between Thanksgiving weekend and the end of January this holiday season. We had planned to head to Church Street in Burlington yesterday for our annual Christmas celebration in Burlington but I wasn't feeling my best in the morning so we cancelled... then I fell asleep for a few hours... I took some extra medications... showered... and I was feeling a bit better so we decided to head up that way much later than we usually do. We got there in time for a very late mid-afternoon lunch at Vermont Pub & Brewery. Lunch was delicious... the beer was delicious (geez... how I wish all micro-brews were as good as their's)... so Sheila and I had a nice time.  Vermont Pub & Brewery is quite behind schedule with their Christmas decorating. They were decorating while we were there which gave us something to watch and laugh about occasionally! Maybe they'll have finished decorating this tree this afternoon. As darkness fell upon Burlington, w